Network Elements goes for Avant! custom design

Network Elements (NEI) has selected Avant!'s Cosmos custom IC design solution for its analogue and mixed signal custom design needs.

Network Elements (NEI) has selected Avant!'s Cosmos custom IC design solution for its analogue and mixed signal custom design needs.

"Meeting the short time-to-market requirements in developing our 10G ICs caused us to seek very efficient and capable tools", said Chuck Saxe, director of silicon integration at NEI.

"After comparing several of the most commonly used custom design suites, we have chosen Cosmos to design our next generation of 10G mixed-signal components".

According to Bob Proebstel, lead design engineer at Network Elements, "Learning to use Cosmos is easy.

The design capture, simulation, waveform display and analysis tools are highly intuitive and contain many powerful features that simplify the tasks of designing and analysing complex mixed-signal circuits.

The schematic driven, physical design with correct-by-construction placing-and-routing decreases time and effort, compared to traditional tools.

The time from concept to verified layout with parasitics is less than we have previously experienced".

Cosmos offers an integrated front-to-back, full-custom IC design environment built on the high-performance Milkyway database for transparent data integration within Avant!'s SinglePass-SoC design flow.

For design capture, simulation, and analysis, Cosmos automates the process of simulation-based design architecture exploration, verification, and validation to help the user drive the design to meet the specifications at all levels of abstraction.

Avant!'s Star-HSpice, Star-SimXT and Saber simulation tools provide complete simulation technology within Cosmos that covers all levels of simulation from transistors to behavioural models.

For custom physical layout, Cosmos extends the capabilities of the single kernel custom layout editor, Enterprise, by adding schematic-driven layout features that automate and monitor the creation, placement, and connection of all devices, cells and nets in the schematic or netlist.

Advanced "TopoPlace" and "TopoRoute" technology speeds layout design with interactive and automatic device and cell placement, and DRC- and LVS-correct editing modes that include slide, push, and alignment features.

Integration with Star-RCXT, Hercules, and Venus provide best-in-class parasitic extraction and physical verification technology to the custom designer.

"The Cosmos custom IC design solution asserts Avant!'s commitment to aggressively address the design needs of the custom mixed-signal market", said Dr Paul Lo, president of Avant! "We are pleased that Network Elements has selected Cosmos.

Working with them to meet their aggressive design goals will help keep Cosmos at the leading edge of advanced custom design.

Cosmos provides a complete custom design solution for critical analog and mixed signal circuits.

Its flexible custom design features and its tight integration into the Milkyway-based, SinglePass-SoC flow, helps customers meet their time-to-market goals on today's challenging designs".

Cosmos is available for Sun Solaris and HP-UX workstations immediately.

Linux platform support for the entire Cosmos tool suite will be available in Q1 2002.

Cosmos integrates through standard interfaces, including Milkyway, GDSII, DSPF, SPEF, and Star-Hspice formats.

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